Oh the Weather Outside is Frightful
by KitKatt0430
Summary: A fight with the Flash goes sideways when a meta shows up with the ability to act as a powers 'EMP' knocks Barry's speed out and drops the speedster into the lake. Len finds himself having to play the hero after all, rescuing Barry and taking him somewhere warm. Naturally the weather takes a bad turn and Len is stuck with a speedless speedster. Not such a bad situation, all told.


Summary: A fight with the Flash goes sideways when another meta shows up with the ability to act as an 'EMP' for metas knocks Barry's powers out and drops the speedster into freezing water. Len finds himself having to play the hero after all, rescuing Barry and bringing him home to warm up enough to run along home. Naturally the weather takes a turn for the worst and Len is now stuck with a speedless speedster in the middle of a blizzard.

Which... might not actually be such a bad situation to be stuck in.

Notes: For the Twelve Days of ColdFlash - Snowed In

_**Oh the Weather Outside is Frightful**_

It used to be that there was nothing Len loved more than a good heist. A well plotted heist, with the danger of being caught mitigated by the fact that he was, of course, just that damn good at being a thief. But it started getting to be too easy. The challenge was going out of it. Len got bored with being the best thief there was.

How did it even happen that stealing could become too routine?

But as Len hit the lowest point of the rut he was in, there came a sudden promise of revitalization to his beloved thievery. There was the Flash. Faster than humanly possible, yet still only human, and a worthy opponent for Len to defeat. Only, standing over the Flash with his Cold Gun in hand and a vacuum cleaner covered in LEDs pointed at him, it occurred to Len that the Flash was very inexperienced and, as fun as their little tête-à-tête was, surely it'd only become more fun over time as the Flash improved, consistently forcing Len to up his game.

So he'd walked away, found Mick, upped their game again, and... lost. It was exhilarating and, annoyed though Mick was, Len had the biggest grin on his face when Lisa rescued them from the cops' clutches on their way to Iron Heights.

It got better. And better. Sometimes Len won. Sometimes he lost. He could have done without Lisa calling his run ins with the Flash 'play dates' but otherwise Len was having the time of his life.

But then Lewis showed up and ruined everything. And, for once in his life, Len had more power than his father. So much so that Lewis put a bomb in Lisa's neck to control Len. When it was all said and done, though, Len killed his father and, in shock that it was actually over for good, went meekly to jail.

Len thought that would be the end of it. The end of the deal he had with the Flash and the growing... whatever it was between them. It was the second time he'd killed someone in front of Barry Allen. The idealistic hero would surely have to give up on whatever it was he'd thought he'd seen as being worthwhile in Len now.

Instead Barry Allen shows up to talk with him in prison. Insists there's good in Len, even.

Perhaps showing up at the West house and stealing their cocoa (and mug) was a step too far after escaping from prison, but it had been fun to wind up the Flash outside of the mask. To see the confusion and hope and irritation at war on Barry's face without anything to obscure the view.

It wasn't fair at all, Len decided as he left, that Barry was just so...

"There's good in you," Barry kept insisting. "You may not see it, but I do."

Len went straight off to steal something. Anything. But it wasn't fulfilling at all anymore, so Len put it back and started planning a way to catch the Flash's attention again.

Which is how he wound up fighting the Flash at two in the morning at the docks, enjoying the way water sprayed up behind Barry and then froze there thanks to his gun. Just barely 'missing' the Flash for the fun of it. How was it that this had become the only part of Len's life that had meaning anymore?

But the two of them were so caught up in fighting each other that neither noticed the third party creeping up on them until it was too late.

* * *

There's a cracking noise in the air that has Len turning instinctively to point his gun in the direction the sound came from. It isn't the sound of a gunshot, but its explosive enough that Len reacts as though it is.

And then he hears the splashing where before the Flash had been running on the water.

Len glances back and, sure enough, Barry's in the water now. But Len's got his gun trained on some smirking nobody he's never seen before and he can't give in to the sudden, overwhelming urge to go help the speedster.

"What the hell do you want?" Len snarled, panic twisting in his gut. Because that water has to be freezing and his use of the cold gun to actually freeze the spray kicked up behind Barry would've only made it colder.

"Consider that my resume," the man replied. "I hear you run the Rogues but can't quite beat the Flash. Now, you don't need to. And I can use my powers to turn off any other meta's abilities... for a short while. I could be very valuable to you, Mr. Snart."

"We're not accepting applications right now," Len retorted, firing at the man's feet. "Why don't you find someone else's evening to ruin."

The man's response was a heated 'fuck you', but he ran off like Len had hoped. Which meant Len could turn and sprint down the dock to where Barry was struggling to get out of the water.

Barry's managed, barely, to not only reach one of the dock ladders, but to climb most of the way out of the water. His legs aren't cooperating for the last few rungs and Barry all too easily accepts Len's help hauling him the rest of the way up. And then he collapses, shivering instead of vibrating, into Len's arms.

Len had already stowed away his Cold Gun, so he hefted the runner into his arms and hurried for the nearest parking lot. One hot wired car later and Len had the heat going - not blasting, but a gradual warm up because what little he knew about hypothermia was that it wasn't safe to warm someone up too fast. Then Len carefully peeled Barry's cowl off and located the zipper for the suit. Barry was carefully cajoled out of the top half of his suit and Len wrapped his parka around the other man in its place. Then the bottom half was kicked off to reveal Barry could indeed wear underwear under his suit. (Len was a bit disappointed at that revelation.) Though not weather proof, the suit seemed to be water proof as Barry's skin (and boxers) was dry. Freezing cold to the touch, but dry.

The comms, however, weren't quite so lucky. When Len checked the cowl, nary a sound came from the ridiculous little lightning bolt transceivers built into either side.

So Len closed his eyes and considered his safe houses. The nearest one was no good. It hadn't been stocked recently and wouldn't have enough food or blankets and the heater was busted besides. There was a house in a neighborhood about fifteen, twenty minutes from the docks that might suffice, though. It was kept well stocked in canned goods, had some pots and pans, a garage he could hide the stolen car in temporarily, three fully furnished bedrooms, and a fireplace in the living room.

Destination decided, Len put the car in gear.

* * *

Len gets to the safe house in twenty-four minutes because it started snowing on the way there. A few flakes here and there at first, but by the time Len is having to get out of the car in order to input the code to the garage door keypad, it's snowing heavily enough that visibility was maybe three feet in front of his car. The car itself is incredibly warm, since Len slowly turned the heat up all the way back. Better yet, Barry seemed a lot more together than he had when Len had stripped the suit off him. Lucid enough to be embarrassed about being dressed only in boxers and a parka, at any rate.

"Pretty sure there are clothes in there you can wear, Scarlet," Len reassured Barry with a smirk as he got back into the car and pulled the rest of the way up the driveway and into the garage itself. "Stay here while I get the heater started up and find you those clothes, alright?"

"Yeah," Barry responded, voice a little rough. "Thanks."

"You know the car is stolen, right?" Len teased, expecting... he wasn't really sure what he was expecting. Derision, perhaps.

"Hot wiring cars to save your nemesis," Barry teased back instead. "Seems like I was right about you after all."

"I'm going to regret this so much," Len sighed and popped the door open again, shutting off the car and closing the door quickly once he was out so that the heat inside would last a while. Then he closed the garage door and used the hidden spare key under the doormat to let himself into the house. He went straight to the thermostat, adjusting the heat so it'd come on and bring the house up to a good temperature. Then he headed to the master bedroom where, sure enough, Lisa had stocked up clothes that would fit Len. He snagged an over-sized sweater from the closet and then discovered a pair of fleece pajama pants, probably Lisa's idea of a joke given the little snowflakes that adorned the fabric, in the dresser. Last, but not least, Len grabbed a pair of thick socks and headed back to the car.

Barry had his cowl back on at that point. The comms must've started working again, just needed to dry up a little first.

"Seriously, Cisco. I'm fine for now. Look, it's snowing pretty heavy here, so you and Caitlin should start checking supplies because it's gonna be over STAR Labs pretty soon. Better you set up camp there and head home in the morning than have any of us out in this tonight. My phone is still there, though, so let Joe know I'm okay. Just, uh, don't tell him I'm with Snart, okay? He'll freak." He snickered at whatever Ramon had to say in response to that. "Yeah, yeah. I'll see you in the morning."

"How're your powers looking?" Len asked as he handed over the pile of clothes.

Barry pulled off the cowl. "Still not working. But not gone entirely; I know what that feels like and its like the speed force is still an itch at the back of my head. Just need to wait it out for now," Barry responded, shucking off the parka and yanking on the sweater before petting the pajama pants in amusement. Then those were slipped on too, followed by the socks. Barry then opened the passenger side door and padded out of the car.

Len wondered for a moment what, exactly, the speed force was and then set it aside for now.

"I hope we didn't strand anyone too badly, but I am glad you took the car," Barry said absently. "Thank you, for getting me out of there," he added, handing back the parka, his own suit gathered up over one arm.

"Yeah, well, I don't like it when someone interrupts my fun," Len muttered, pouting a little bit. "Did you tell your little friends about tonight's interloper?"

"Yes." Barry wrinkled his nose. "We were having fun before he showed up."

Len laughed despite himself. Maybe Lisa had a point calling them play dates after all. "I'm glad I'm not the only one who enjoys our little encounters."

"So where are we anyway?"

"Lakewood neighborhood. The area is being revitalized or whatever. It's Lisa's new calling. She doesn't really do to much in the way of thieving these days, she got into flipping houses as a cover and ended up liking it too much. She's good at it, though. Buy's a house, flips it, let's me use it as a safe house for anywhere from a few weeks to a few months, then sticks it on the market and picks up a new house to flip. We're in luck. This one has a gas fireplace."

"Well, the house does look really good." Barry was looking around the kitchen with approval. It was a relatively small house, but the kitchen was shiny and new and felt big for the small space.

Lisa really had done a great job with it.

"Though I admit I'm more interested in whether there's food in the pantry somewhere," Barry gave Len a sheepish look, seeming rather adorable in the large black sweater and soft blue pants. "Speedster metabolism means I'm pretty much always hungry."

"Even with your powers shut down, food would do you some good after that dip in the lake you took." Len opened the most likely looking cabinet and discovered cans of soup inside. "Take your pick, I'll see where the pots and pans are." A few more cabinets and drawers later and Len found a second hand set of pots. He set out two on the stove and then went to pick a can of soup for himself.

"So, you're stuck with me until morning," Barry observed, pulling out a box of hot cocoa mix. "And I'm pretty sure its my turn to steal one of your mugs."

"I've never stolen one of your mugs," Len protested, smirking when Barry's eyebrow went up in disbelief. "Technically speaking, I stole Detective West's mug."

"Close enough," Barry retorted with an easy grin. "Though I suppose technically I'd be stealing a mug from your sister and that would just be mean. Maybe I should leave her Cisco's number as a thank you for letting me eat the food she left here."

Len grimaced. "You do realize she'd eat your friend alive, right?"

"You say that like he wouldn't enjoy it," Barry snarked back.

Len closed his eyes and paused for a moment, letting out a frustrated noise. "I really didn't need to know that."

Barry snickered. "Sorry." He didn't sound particularly apologetic.

Sighing to himself - this was going to be a very long night - Len grabbed a soup at random.

* * *

They'd set up a fire in the fireplace and gathered a bunch of blankets on the couch, rather than bother trying to heat up the entire house. Barry was watching the snow fall outside and Len... was watching Barry. Because every so often the speedster would grimace and shudder a little, making no noise but... seemed like he was hurting.

Finally, Len couldn't take it anymore. "Are you alright over there?"

"Fine," Barry replied, not really paying attention.

"Something's clearly causing you pain, did I miss an injury when I got you almost naked in the car?" Len smirked when Barry gave him a sharp look and a blush.

"No. No it isn't that. My powers are trying to come back, but whatever that meta did to me hasn't worn off yet so it... hurts. Probably explains a few things about the seizures I had during my coma, I guess."

Len froze up. "Seizures," he repeated carefully.

"I don't think I'll be having one tonight, if you're worried. But... I was struck by lightning the night the accelerator exploded. Put me in a nine month coma while my powers activated at random, giving me what looked like seizures." A lot was going unsaid there and Len found himself wishing he could interpret the nuance.

"Just wanted to be sure you're alright over there, Scarlet."

"I'll be okay," Barry smiled and stood up, moving over to rejoin Len on the blanket nest on the couch. "I could think of a few things you could do to help distract me from my speed malfunctioning."

"Oh, really?" Len sucked in a sharp breath as Barry leaned in closer.

"Really." He paused a beat. "If you're not interested..."

"I'm interested. Just not sure this is such a good idea, for you."

"I get enough over protective mothering from Joe and Caitlin, I don't need it from the guy I want to make out with too," Barry retorted, giving Len an arch look.

Testing his luck, Len asked, "just make out with?"

"I'm sure I could be persuaded to do something else, should I be presented with a plan of action I'd enjoy." Barry batted his eyes faux-coquettishly.

Len laughed and pulled Barry into a kiss, already planning on making a quick run by the bathroom to see if Lisa had stashed any condoms and lube in there somewhere. "I suppose I should finish checking our supplies first, to find out what our options are."

"Sounds good to me," Barry agreed, pulling away and licking his lips.

Smiling, Len got up to make that bathroom check. But he paused in the doorway, looking back at the brunet on the couch. A small smile slowly lit Len's face. Maybe... maybe Barry Allen was the challenge Len had been looking for all along, just... not the way Len had thought he'd be.

He could learn to live with that.

But Len wanted to sleep with him first.


End file.
